Filters against Folly: How to Survive Despite Economists Ecologists and the Merely Eloquent

For 20 years Garrett Hardin has been our most hardnosed thinker about ecological problems...Filters Against Folly makes provocative reading. -- Michael Crichton . The ecological problems facing our world present a forum for experts to offer slogans and solutions on all sides of the issue but leave most of us confused and unsure of the future. In this bracing book Garrett Hardin offers a plan for clear thinking about these dangers. He shows how the filters of literacy understanding what words really mean; numeracy being able to quantify and interpret information; and ecolacy assessment of complex interactions over time can allow anyone to make sensible judgments about ecological issues--even in the face of a barrage of confusing expertise. . Filters Against Folly offers an antidote to some of the more perverse and dangerous irrationalities of our time: wishful self-delusion educated incapacity and foolhardy optimism...If ever this book were needed it is needed today. -- Lynton K. Caldwell School of Public Environmental Affairs Indiana University